MFA Blog

A lack of agreement among participating governments will likely delay the European Union’s financial transaction tax at least six months, according to a recent NASDAQ article. Eleven EU Member States back the proposal, including France and Germany. The UK government is lobbying against the plan.

The tax was initially supposed to enter into force on January 1 of next year. If agreed to before the end of 2013, the tax “could still enter into force towards the middle of 2014,” notes the European Commission.

However, agreement may be difficult to achieve as the 11 EU Member States backing the proposal “remain divided on fundamental issues, including the scope of the tax and how to distribute the revenue,” according to the article. This disagreement is fueled by an increased concern over the impact of such a tax on Europe’s economy.

“A delay of the EU financial transactions tax has become inevitable given the lack of progress by the working group [of EU ambassadors], and the time needed to then implement, said Richard Asquith of TMF group.